Byline: Rosanna Spero

CRIME shouldn't pay - but that doesn't stop some Britons making ludicrous insurance claims. MONEY MAIL reveals the ten daftest insurance demands.

INSURANCE fraud has increased by almost a quarter in two years. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) estimates it costs [pounds sterling]5.2 million every day and adds an extra [pounds sterling]44 to the cost of all home and motor policies.

In a survey for the ABI, more than two in five people thought it was acceptable to increase the value of a lost or stolen item and three in ten said it was OK to overstate the extent of any damage to items when claiming.

But insurance companies are stepping up their efforts to expose the cheats. With the help of Mark Jones, a consultant in financial crime at EMB, we reveal some scams that failed.

1. A woman said her [pounds sterling]200 'bingo winnings' were accidentally incinerated while she was cooking. She claimed the wind blew the cash on to the hob, catching fire. She sent in the charred remains, but these amounted to about [pounds sterling]20. The insurer also felt the description of the location of the window, table and hob made it highly implausible.

2. A man claimed [pounds sterling]12,000 for a Rolex watch he lost while waterskiing. His claim was genuine enough - unfortunately his watch wasn't. When the claimant was told, it led to a domestic dispute because his girlfriend had given it to him as a present claiming it was the genuine article.

3. A woman submitted a [pounds sterling]200 receipt from her newsagent for printing reward flyers for her 'lost' Yorkshire terrier called 'Puds'. Closer examination suggested the receipt had been for [pounds sterling]20 and an extra zero has been added. Six months later, a strikingly similar claim was made to a subsidiary of the same insurer - this time for a Yorkshire terrier called 'Pudding'. The woman even used the same receipt.

4. A motorist was involved in an accident with a bus on a roundabout. Their insurer received 34 personal injury claims from bus passengers, but the motorist claimed the bus was no more than half full and it was only a 31-seater.

Twenty-one claimants were interviewed by the police and all admitted their claims were false. However, one claimant had contacted an accident claims company, which referred 34 cases to two separate firms of solicitors, claiming [pounds sterling]500 per referral and thus pocketing [pounds sterling]17,500. The case against the accident claims company continues.

5. A 'pet owner' made a series of claims totalling around [pounds sterling]5,000 for pedigree animals. The insurance company investigated and discovered he was acquiring dead animals - both roadkill and natural deaths - and then putting them in the freezer. He then took out pet insurance policies on the animals LED downlights and claimed they had died a short while later.

6. A bride claimed her [pounds sterling]850 wedding dress had been damaged by paint. When the veil arrived at the claims department, the paint was still wet, despite the wedding occurring a month before.

7. A man claimed thieves broke into his holiday apartment in Turkey taking [pounds sterling]950 from the safe, which was locked and secured to the wardrobe.

A few days later when his credit cards miraculously reappeared, he claimed they had been handed in. The final straw was when the insurer discovered he had made a withdrawal

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